FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT WWW.QNS.COM JANUARY 23, 2020 • THE QUEENS COURIER 33
NO SIDEWALK
PENALTIES FOR
ANYONE!
Now that the city has decided to
fi nally, aft er many decades, exempt
owners of one- and two-family residences
from any type of penalty
due to their sidewalks being uplift -
ed or damaged by city tree roots, it
is now time for this exemption to be
phased in across the entire area for
all buildings.
All property owners throughout
the city should be given this right;
they have to still spend money to
have their sidewalks repaired, and
that creates a huge fi nancial burden
on them.
Th e forestry division in each borough
needs to review their procedures
concerning this issue. When
tree roots begin to uplift and damage
sidewalks, there is always an
inherent hazard created. Potential
injuries and property damage
increase substantially.
It should not have taken the city
all these years to fi nally change
the law regarding responsibility
of residential owners of one-
and two-family homes for repairing
tree damaged sidewalks. But it’s not
enough. Th e exemption must apply
to all buildings throughout the city.
John Amato, Fresh Meadows
MTA IS IGNORING
NORTHEAST
QUEENS NABES
Riders who reside in Bay Terrace,
Bayside, Douglaston, Floral Park,
Fresh Meadows, Glen Oaks, Little
Neck, North Shore Towers, Oakdale
Gardens, Queens Village and other
neighborhoods in the so-called
northeast Queens transportation
desert have no easy access to one of
10 scheduled workshops between
January and February 2020.
Queensborough Community
College in Bayside could have
been a perfect location to host
a workshop. Why should residents
from these communities
have to travel in the evenings
to one of the workshops
located in Ridgewood, Flushing,
Jamaica, Kew Gardens, Ozone
Park, Corona, Long Island City,
Arverne, Rockaway Beach or Far
Rockaway? Shame on officials
from the MTA, NYC Transit and
study consultants who continue
to discriminate against northeast
Queens customers.
Larry Penner, Great Neck
MAKE COMPOST,
NOT TRASH
In these trying times where
reform and change appear isolated
at the heights of corporate power
and political establishment, there
are many opportunities for local
engagement.
Perhaps too many. Perhaps so
many that any and all lifestyle modifi
cations pile up into a suff ocating
mess of trends and constraints on
simple pleasures.
I’m here to tell you that there’s one
more. It’s macro and microbiotic,
raw and cooked, not vegan, and not
only for food items labeled “organic.”
It’s as exciting as folding laundry,
if not more so, and no quarters
needed!
Th e Department of Sanitation
provides rodent resistant brown
bins, outreach and curbside collection
to residential buildings and
nonprofi t organizations in participating
neighborhoods. Buildings of
all sizes. For free.
Scraping plates and ditching
spent food scraps into the stinky
trash, no longer. Husky sidewalk
rats chewing into black plastic trash
bags to munch the meat off chicken
bones, over. We want your vegetable
peels, chicken bones, spoiled
yogurt, moldy bread, eggshells,
coff ee stained paper towels, dead
houseplants, fall leaves. Th e list goes
on.
It’s part of a citywide eff ort for
NYC to become more environmentally
sustainable. New York currently
sends its trash to a host of recipients
across the Eastern Seaboard:
landfi lls, waste-to-energy facilities
and incinerators. About a third
of that garbage can be recycled
through the Curbside Composting
Program.
Th e material we collect skips the
breezy ride to landfi lls in South
Carolina or Ohio where it would
emit toxic greenhouse gases.
Instead, it stays in New York and
New Jersey where it’s made into
compost and renewable energy.
Th e outreach team for the Make
Compost, Not Trash campaign is
available to help you, so you’ll
help us.
Current outreach efforts are
focused in three community districts
in Brooklyn (2, 6, 7) and Queens
(2, 5, 8) as well as Bronx 8. But
that doesn’t mean they are limited
to those areas. An outreach team of
15 people covering the whole city?
You’re right. Th ey need all the help
they can get. Th ey need you. Make
the change and put composting on
the list of life’s simple pleasures.
Th e Make Compost, Not Trash
outreach team hopes you’ll recycle
your food scraps, food soiled-paper
and yard waste. Tell your friends
and neighbors about it, and help
them spread the word of compost
with their volunteer opportunities!
For questions, email Ceorganics@
bigreuse.org.
Mike Stinavage
oped letters & comments
Improve transit in northeast
Queens, don’t make it worse
BY THOMAS SUOZZI
Northeast Queens is already
a transit desert! Now, the New
York City Transit Authority’s
recently proposed Queens Bus
Network Redesign plan threatens
to eliminate the only oasis in
that desert.
Th is wrong-headed proposal
of the MTA’s New York City
Transit Authority eliminates express buses during nonpeak
hours, sets bus stops farther apart, and consolidates
or even eliminates some routes. Th ese changes
would impact mid-day and late evening service on some
routes and weekend service on other routes.
For example, the QM6, which runs from the North
Shore Towers in Glen Oaks to Midtown Manhattan,
would become the QMT167, running only every 20-30
minutes during morning and evening rush hours on
weekdays — no buses from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., no weekends.
Additionally, the plan includes the total elimination of the
Q36, which runs to and from the Little Neck LIRR station
through Glen Oaks, Floral Park, Bellerose, and Queens
Village, impacting thousands of residents … no way!
In northeast Queens, there is no subway access and
limited public transportation options for those who
do not drive to get to work, doctors appointments, etc.
Th ese proposed changes would greatly alter the day-today
lives of thousands of residents.
Congestion pricing was sold by the MTA to the residents
of northeast Queens as a way to generate revenue
for improved public transit. Th e New York City
Transit Authority must use congestion pricing revenues
to improve service to this area and not reduce it.
Th ese proposed changes have become a rallying cry
for all in northeast Queens and on Friday, every elected
offi cial in northeast Queens came together for a joint
press conference to demand community workshops and
meetings so that the concerns of the residents can be
heard.
First and foremost, the Transit Authority must hold
multiple community bus redesign workshops in Le
Havre, Bay Terrace, North Shore Towers and Glen Oaks,
in addition to the ones already proposed in Bayside and
Bellerose.
Secondly, the elected offi cials in northeast Queens,
who are united in this eff ort, are seeking signatures on
a petition which will allow residents to voice their concerns
over pending changes to existing bus routes and
will demonstrate the widespread dissatisfaction with the
proposed bus redesign plan.
Lastly, while I have already registered my concerns
in a phone call with the president of the New York City
Transit Authority, Andrew Byford. We must continue to
make these concerns, of both the elected offi cials and
residents, well known to Mr. Byford and the entire New
York City Transit Authority and MTA leadership.
I applaud each of the elected offi cials — Congresswoman
Grace Meng, Senator John Liu, Senator Leroy Comrie,
Assemblyman Ed Braunstein, Assemblywoman Nily
Rozic, Council member Barry Grodenchik, and Council
member Paul Vallone — for coming together for the
needs of our constituents.
With all the turmoil and distractions in Washington,
D.C., it is essential that we, as elected offi cials, remain
laser-focused on the day-to-day issues that impact the
residents that we represent. I will continue to work
with my colleagues, solicit input from my constituents,
and stay in constant communication with the MTA
and the Transit Authority until our concerns are satisfi
ed. Working together, we can improve mass transit in
northeast Queens, and not harm it.
Congressman Th omas Suozzi represents the Th ird
Congressional District in New York.
“I had so much fun shooting these fall shots at Astoria Park… Now it’s on to
the winter ones. // @theosahos on Instagram
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tweet @QNS or email editorial@qns.com (subject: Queens Snaps).
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